The present invention relates to an apparatus for dispensing freely predeterminable numbers of many different articles from many different article dispensing cells or hoppers under control of a single master counter and more particularly to such a system wherein several of said different types of articles may be dispensed at different times from a single cell with minimum danger of mixing the articles.
In the aforesaid copending patent application a plurality of cells or hoppers are provided each for dispensing a different article (drug). A single master control unit is provided for said plurality of cells and includes a presettable counter for determining the number of tablets or capsules to be dispensed.
In operation, the master control unit is turned on and the number of items to be dispensed is inserted into the counter. In response thereto a voltage is applied to all cells for starting each cell. Each cell has a start switch. The start switch on the cell containing the desired drug is now activated and that cell begins to rotate to dispense drugs. Energization of one cell causes the starting voltage to be removed from all cells so that only the selected cell operates; the circuit being maintained through a holding circuit.
When the desired number of items have been dispensed, the counter is automatically reset to zero, the starting voltage is reapplied to all cells and another cell may be selected and run.
The above apparatus is completely satisfactory and the present invention relates to changes in the circuitry of certain drug cells to permit selected cells to be used for several different drugs. Specifically, it has been found that with most capsules the exterior is such that a cell is not contaminated by the drug. This fact coupled with the additional facts that certain capsule cells can accomodate a range of capsule sizes and that the economics are such that there exists a strong desire to reduce the number of cells required has led to the use of the several of the capsule cells of the aforesaid application for multiple drugs; i.e., multi-use cells.
It is an object of the present invention to provide circuitry for use with multi-use drug cells utilized in automatic drug dispensing devices.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide combined mechanical and electrical features in a multi-use cell to substantially eliminate the danger of mixing capsules, etc., of different drugs.
It is another object of the present invention to provide circuitry for such multi-use cells which after a desired number of items have been dispensed, the cell cannot be restarted until the dispensed items have been removed from the output chute of the cell.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide circuitry for a multi-use cell in which upon removal of dispensed items, the cell is automatically activated to remove all excess items in the cell after which the cell is ready for further use.